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As it turns out, new research has determined that a judgmental attitude may just go hand in hand with exposure to organic foods. In fact, a new study published this week in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science, has found that organic food may just make people act a bit like jerks.

"There's a line of research showing that when people can pat themselves on the back for their moral behavior, they can become self-righteous," says author Kendall Eskine, assistant professor of the department of psychological sciences at Loyola University in New Orleans. "I've noticed a lot of organic foods are marketed with moral terminology, like Honest Tea, and wondered if you exposed people to organic food, if it would make them pat themselves on the back for their moral and environmental choices. I wondered if they would be more altruistic or not."
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To find out, Eskine and his team divided 60 people into three groups. One group was shown pictures of clearly labeled organic food, like apples and spinach. Another group was shown comfort foods such as brownies and cookies. And a third group -- the controls -- were shown non-organic, non-comfort foods like rice, mustard and oatmeal. After viewing the pictures, each person was then asked to read a series of vignettes describing moral transgressions.

"One vignette was about second cousins having sex," says Eskine. "Another was about a lawyer on the prowl in an ER trying to get people to sue for their injuries. Then the groups made moral judgments on a scale from one to seven."

In another phase of the study, the three groups were asked to volunteer for a (fictitious) study, with each person writing down the amount of time -- from zero to 30 minutes -- that they would be willing to volunteer.

The results did not bode well for the organic folks.

Next time someone is mean to me I'll ask them, do you eat organic food?

Good men sleep peaceably in their beds at night because
rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

I think that the only revelation here is that certain types of jerks, and there are a huge number of jerks out there of every stripe, are more inclined to choose organic foods than other jerks. My study finds that academics are more inclined to eat organic food than your average jerk.

"The efforts of the government alone will never be enough. In the end the people must choose and the people must help themselves" ~ JFK; from his famous inauguration speech (What Democrats sounded like before today's neo-Liberals hijacked that party)

I think that the only revelation here is that certain types of jerks, and there are a huge number of jerks out there of every stripe, are more inclined to choose organic foods than other jerks. My study finds that academics are more inclined to eat organic food than your average jerk.

Exactly. Correlation does not equal causation. Otherwise, owning a Prius could be determined to be a cause of obnoxious self-righteousness, wearing Birkenstocks would cause unsightly leg hair to spontaneously grow on women, voting for Obama would cause an inability to grasp fundamental economic concepts, and posting on DU would lead to mental degeneration and the inability to form cogent arguments.

hey, not all of us that eat organic (or grow organic food) are jerks. Damn libtards that act snobbish about their food are

"Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings..." Patrick Henry

Personally I'm offended by the bastardization of the term 'organic'. If it is biological, it's organic however it's raised.

What it amounts to is creating another fake "I'm better than you" status symbol.

Does all that mean if I buy a cantaloupe from someone who used a bug killer it's inorganic?

It's not how old you are, it's how you got here.It's been a long road and not all of it was paved.A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. Gandhi

Originally Posted by Carol

When I judge someone's integrity one key thing I look at is - How does s/he treat people s/he doesn't agree with or does not like?
I can respect someone who I do not agree with, but I have NO respect for someone who puts others down in a public forum. That is the hallmark of someone who has no integrity, and cannot be trusted.